Pro-hemp states

By
Dana Larsen
on December 29, 1999

In 1999, pro-hemp bills were introduced in the US states of Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. Of these 14 states, seven have actually passed some kind of proactive legislation: North Dakota, Hawaii, Illinois, Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota and Montana.The North Dakota law reads simply: ?Any person in this state may plant, grow, harvest, possess, process, sell, and buy industrial hemp.? The Montana House Resolution calls for the feds to officially define ?hemp? as having less than 1% THC, and to give regulation power to the Department of Agriculture.
The federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has authority over all US cannabis cultivation, and is firmly against issuing any permits at all. An ongoing review of the idea has so far only produced DEA musings that farmers would be required to post a bond of $1000 per acre, to pay for the potential expense of burning crops.